Quarry Bay

Quarry Bay
Traditional Chinese 鰂魚涌
Literal meaning crucian carp stream/river
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 採石灣
Literal meaning rock-extracting bay
Aerial view of Taikoo Shing portion of the Quarry Bay, One Island East is the tallest building in the photo and Mount Parker is on the background
A section of King's Road in Quarry Bay
Nam Fung Sun Chuen, a private housing estate in Quarry Bay

Quarry Bay (Chinese: 鰂魚涌) is an area beneath Mount Parker in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. The western portion of the area was also formerly known as Lai Chi (麗池). Traditionally being an industrial and residential area, the number of commercial buildings in this district has increased over the past two decades.

History

During Colonial Hong Kong times, the Hakka stonemasons settled in the area after the British arrival.[1]

The area was a bay where quarried rocks from the hillside for construction or building roads were transported by ship. The Chinese name Tsak Yue Chung (鰂魚涌) reveals that it was a small stream where crucian carp (鰂魚) could be found back in the 19th century. The English name was Arrow Fish Creek.[1] The original bay has disappeared since land reclamation had been taken place, and was about 700m from the current coastline.

Taikoo

The eastern part of Quarry Bay, namely Quarry Point, was largely owned by Swire and therefore many places and facilities are named after the company's Chinese name, Taikoo. The river originally flowed into the bay, however it was shut off from the sea with the construction of the Tai Koo Reservoir to supply fresh water to the Taikoo Dockyard, the Taikoo Sugar factory at Tong Chong Street (糖廠街), and later the Swire Coca-Cola factory at Greig Road (基利路) and Yau Man Street (佑民街). The upper course of the river was converted into a cement-paved catchwater, and the lower course is the present-day Quarry Bay Street (鰂魚涌街), with the original estuary near the Quarry Bay Street - King's Road junction.

In the mid-1980s, the hillside was converted into Kornhill apartment buildings, the reservoir into Mount Parker Lodge (康景花園) apartment buildings, and the Dockyard into Taikoo Shing. The Coca-cola factory is now apartment Kornville (康蕙花園), and Taikoo Sugar is now the Taikoo Place, a commercial hub.

Lai Chi

The western end of Quarry Bay was historically part of North Point; during the 1930s its beaches became one of the most popular places for holding swimming gala in Hong Kong. From this basis an upmarket entertainment complex, the Ritz nightclub (麗池夜總會 lai6 chi4 ye6 jung2 wui2), was built in the area in 1947. The nightclub was demolished only a few years later, to make way for the construction of apartment buildings during the latter half of the 1950s. Nonetheless for years afterwards the western part of Quarry Bay continued to be known informally as Lai Chi (麗池), made more so by the name being homophone to Cantonese for "late as usual" (例遲) - a reference to King's Road, until 1984 the only thoroughfare in the area and thus infamous for traffic congestion.

To this day some buildings in the western part of Quarry Bay are named as "North Point something building", although they are across the modern-day limit of North Point at Man Hong Street / Healthy Street West.

Hotels

Residential buildings

Nam Fung Sun Chuen

Nam Fung Sun Chuen (Chinese: 南豐新邨), built in 1978, is a private apartment estate. Consisting of 12 buildings distributed along Greig Road and Greig Crescent with a car park at the centre of the development, it was developed by Nam Fung Development. Because of the relatively large size of the development, it serves as the benchmark for premises developed in the late 1970s in the property market. The tower blocks range in height from 28 to 33 floors. Blocks 1 to 5 are at 32 to 40 (even numbers) Greig Road while blocks 6 to 12 are at 27 to 15 Greig Crescent.

Industrial buildings

A few industrial buildings exist in the areas of Shipyard Lane.

Commercial buildings

Parks and recreational facilities

Education

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Primary schools
Secondary schools

Transportation

Public transport

Major roads and expressways

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Quarry Bay.
  1. 1 2 Wordie, Jason (2002). Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 962-209-563-1.
  2. ↑ http://www.taikooplace.com/eng/working/portfolio/portfolio.htm
 (Victoria Harbour)
Wan Chai District Tathong Channel
   Eastern District  
Southern District

Coordinates: 22°16′59″N 114°12′46″E / 22.28313°N 114.21279°E / 22.28313; 114.21279

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.